FENNVILLE — Going from operating a lumber retail business in a small town near Chicago to starting a vineyard and winery from scratch in Southwest Michigan was a challenge, but not one that Bill Welsch was afraid to undertake.

“Considering that we didn’t know what we were doing at the time, yes (it was a challenge),” said Doug Welsch, owner and winemaker at Fenn Valley Vineyards and Wine Cellar southwest of Fennville since his father stepped down from active leadership in the business in 1991.

“He just thought that it wasn’t that difficult to do," Doug Welsch said of his father, who had enjoyed winemaking as a hobby. “I don’t think he ever thought that he wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Even after he turned the business over to his son, Bill Welsch enjoyed walking through the vineyards on a daily basis.

“Every day, summer and winter, for probably the last 10 or 12 years he would go walking every day. … He just liked going for walks in the vineyards,” Doug Welsch said.

But complications from Alzheimer’s disease this past spring put an end to those walks, and on Aug. 6, at the age of 83, Bill Welsch died, his son said.

“He spent several years traveling to New York and talking to the people at Cornell University. … He talked to the people at Penn State and Ohio State. Those three universities were doing wine and grape research,” Doug Welsch said of the groundwork his father laid in preparation for starting to grow grapes and produce wine.

The senior Welsch also talked to people at the National Weather Service and Department of Agriculture and collected soil, topographical and climate maps.

“It took a lot of research,” Doug Welsch said. “He put it all together and there are a few sites that are available and this was one of them.”

Bill Welsch started out in June 1973 with 230 acres — Fenn Valley now has 245 acres — and began clearing the land, which included a lot of fruit trees, for vineyards.

Doug Welsch moved to Fennville to establish the operation that year; the winery was built two years later, in 1975; and Bill Welsch became a permanent resident of the Fennville area in 1976.

“I think the first year we might have made 2,000 cases” of wine, Doug Welsch said. That number has grown to 40,000 cases annually.

Bill Welsch is survived by his wife, Ruth; four children; and four grandchildren. A memorial service was held at the Douglas Community Church.